The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-04-01
A. A. McKAIN,
MON
80 Massachusetts Avenue.
| GREAT DISASTER AT SEA.
s3cCYirmation of the Report of the Loss
OF the Sealing Steamer Eagle.
Wreckage Discovered Near FunkIsland Leaves
o Room for Doubt that the Vessel and
Her 260 Men Have Gone to the Bottom.

I =. JOINS, N. T., March 31.-The reported
los.. OF the steamship Eagle is confirmed by the
discovery of wreckage on Bonavista bay. The
.p numbered $50 men. and there is nothing to
thow that anyone was saved. The steamer was
lost on the shoals near Funk island, off Bona
vista bay. Debris consisting of deck ladders,
forecastle deck and cooking gear, with the
steamers name, were found on the ice and the
iDh ibitants are on the outlook for bodies OF the
p wned. The condition of the wreck
leads to the belief that the YES.
was lost through a boiler explosion.
- tof the lost seamen lived in and about ST.
-ns, and the excitement and sret here are in
Q. Women and children are weeping at
% or ciarlcring at telegraph and newspaper
es to get further information.
,e Eagle was large sealing steamer COM
ded by Captain Jockman and owned by the
,rs Bowerine Brothers. the captain being
OF the best and and most successful COM
,ders sailing out of Newfoundland ports.
1t is said the steamers boilers were in such
'ition that she should never have gone to sea.
a was whispered about soon after she sailed
he fisheries. and the report that the wreck
indicates a boiler explosion is taken as evil
% that all board are lost
3 ,sToN. March IA special to the Journal
st. Johns. N F., says: "The steamer
1 lie was last seen by the steamer Aurora, on
rs night of the 1l,h, near Funk's island. A
rible sea was running at the time. The next
vnng the Aurora could find no trace of the
lie. and nothing has been seen of the ill
cd vessel since. A message from Grecupond,
sout 100 miles from here, says that light
Z
steamers Vanguard and Hector. Both those
vessels are reported passing spars, a forecastle
kaand the name board, Eagle near the
spot where she was last seen Light
house keeper Cabot is reliable man,
and from his knowledge of affairs there
! and the fact that the Eagle has not been seen
since tie 11th, while the other vessels of the
feet have been spoken every few days, it is uni
versalIy believed that the steamer, with her 26O
souls on board, was driven on the terrible reefs
so numerous inside Funk's island, that the sea
! ! noke her up. and that she probably sank imme-
aiately with her fifty seamen on deck and 210
zeal fishers below. The sea that swept the coast
hat night was the worst ever witnessed by the
dest sea!ers On board the other vessels. No
hip once getting in those terrible breakers
n4buld possibly escape.
"Captain Jockman, commander of the i'll
fated vessel was considered the bravest skipper
Newfoundland ever produced. He was called
King OF the Sealing Fleet until 1885, when, for
the first time in his experience, he failed to se-
cure any seals Last year bad luck again over
took him, and he lost the steamer Resolute, near
the same fatal Funks island, but all his crew
escaped. Later. the same season, he took COM
rnand of the Eagle. and within few weeks she
broke her shaft. She was reitted, and a month
.go started. with the rest Of the feet on what is
now felt was her last voyage. The majority of
the crew were married and resided in this city
d vicinity, and all were in the prime of life.
The city is in mourning to-day. This is the
greatest calamity and most frightful loss Of life
/. in the modern history of this unfortunate col
ony.'